


Wake Up Exhausted

by jendavis



Category: Leverage
Genre: M/M, PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-19
Updated: 2010-11-19
Packaged: 2017-10-13 07:11:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/134399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jendavis/pseuds/jendavis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for comment_fic  prompt: "Leverage, Eliot (/Hardison)+ team, they thought waking him up on the morning of his birthday with firecrackers would be a good idea."  Takes place in between "The Studio Job" and "The Gone Fishin' Job."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wake Up Exhausted

  
Delgado, Juarez's premier middleman and coyote, had his hands in a bunch of dirty little pies, mostly smuggling drugs up over the border, and dabbling in a little human trafficking, here and there. Both were profitable, but the second one, he'd determined, was more so when the "product" died on route.

He had his contacts, so it had taken a month of prep work even _before_ the team made it down to Juarez. Sophie became the perfect corrupt immigration official; Nate and Eliot were border guards on the take.

Alec did the research, and Parker was in charge of obtaining the party supplies. Streamers, lanterns, fireworks, food and paper plates. Half of the piñatas were a gift to Delgado, for the fiesta he was sponsoring down in the plaza. The other half were for the drugs Delgado couldn't afford to lose.

Everything was running smoothly. Maria Ruiz, their client, had helped pave much of the way. Delgado was on the hook, even going so far as to invite Sophie along to the party, partially to talk business, partially to show his shiny new contact off to his prospective clients, of which there promised to be a staggering number.

"Doesn't seem right," Sophie mused, looking at the crates of piñatas as Alec and Eliot finished loading them into the truck the day before the party.

"He's making a fortune killing people and running drugs," Alec argued, checking to make sure the tracking devices inside the crates were all transmitting. "He deserves a hell of a lot worse than being left holding the bag."

"Yeah, well. You try losing a few million dollars worth of another guy's drugs, see what happens."

"I know all that," Sophie said, gesturing at the crates. "It's just. There are going to be children, there, at the party."

"We're not putting them at any risk," Nate reminded her. "Delgado's just using the party as a cover for making contact with a lot of out-of-towners who might be interested in striking a deal with him. Our part's not happening until afterwards, mid to late afternoon."

"So we're not going to the party?" Parker frowned, looking wistfully at the piñatas.

"We can have our own party," Alec grinned, glancing over at Eliot, singing, "someone's got a birthday tomorrow, someone's getting _old_."

"Shut up," Eliot said, rolling his eyes, but there was no malice in his voice. And maybe there should've been. Maybe all of this could've been avoided.

\---

Eliot, it turned out, responded sharply to threats, whether real or perceived.

Firecrackers in the bedroom, half an hour before his alarm was set to go off? That counted, and Alec should've seen this coming. He really should have.

Parker was pressed against the wall, her eyes wide, as Alec crawled over towards the bed, trying to catch his breath. He rubbed his throat, willing the airway to open fully again, while Eliot stood frozen in the middle of the room, eyes wild and staring.

"What the hell is going on in there?" Nate was at the door, and Sophie was probably right behind him. There was no telling if Eliot heard their shouting, but Parker edged towards the door, threw the bolt, and let them in.

"Ah, guys?"

Alec hadn't even noticed the smell of spent firecrackers until Sophie's nose scrunched in recognition, but it was the upended tray of food- Eliot's near brush with breakfast in bed- that seemed to hold her attention.

Another drop of orange juice slid from the comforter onto the growing puddle on the floor, and it was starting to ooze in Alec's direction.

"We're cool," Alec gasped, standing, and gave Eliot a wide berth as he crossed the room. "My bad. Ah. You know." He wanted them gone, all of them. He needed to talk to Eliot, find out what the hell was going through his head. He looked _catatonic_ , for fuck's sake, standing there in the middle of the room, barefoot, without his shirt. And crap, they had to be heading down to the plaza in less than an hour.

Nate scowled at him, shaking his head, but turned to Parker. "Nice work." _Both of you_ , he meant, but given Parker's wince, she wasn't hearing it that way.

"Hey, man. I'm sorry, this wasn't her fault."

"Her idea though, right?"

Alec shrugged. _Yeah, but_ … "And I could've ixnayed it, but I didn't, so. Anyway."

He turned to Eliot before Nate could start ranting, and was met with a blank stare. Eliot's breathing was nowhere near as steady as his eyes were now, or as his hands had been three minutes ago.

Alec was about to turn to Nate, start apologizing, explaining- anything to get everyone to clear out of here, because apparently Alec had decided to give Eliot a heart attack for his birthday, while getting himself nearly killed. It really hadn't been the plan, not at all.

Coughing once, he waved his hands. "Hey, ah. You mind giving us a minute?" _Give me a chance here. Let me fix this._

As soon as the door closed behind them, though, he was at a loss.

It wasn't the first time since they'd started dating that he had no idea what the fuck he was supposed to be doing. But it was the first time he'd done it with the imprint of Eliot's fingers around his neck.

This was just going from bad to worse.

\---

"Eliot?"

Alec was there, in front of him, looking worried, no, fuck that- looking _terrified_ , and it really wasn't helping anything.

He got it, he'd figured it out the moment he'd realized it was _Alec_ underneath him, not any number of people it _could've_ been. And it was hot in here, sweltering, but the sunlight was starting to sort itself out, showing him a dresser here, a table there, the closed door behind Alec's shoulder.

He turned his head, checking the window behind him. Open, but the screen was intact, and metal bars framed them from the outside. Relatively secure, then. Outside, across the street, a brightly painted building-neon green and pink, advertised carnitas. _Not Afghanistan, then. Okay_.

"Hey, El? Talk to me." Alec's voice sounded strange, choked, gravelly, and _wary_ , in a way that Eliot didn't like.

 _Shots, then slight pressure on the bed next to him, and he was striking out, even before his eyes were open. Impact, then, and the clattering sound of things falling to the floor. Breaking glass. Flimsy metal ringing out. He opened his eyes to see someone moving to evade, and followed, quick, before they could recover, hands reaching out to grab his throat, neutralize-_

"Eliot, I'm _sorry_ ," Alec was saying, hands up, moving closer, careful to keep well within Eliot's line of vision, for some reason.

 _Fuck_ , it still felt like his heart was going to explode. Eliot drew in a breath and didn't like how shaky it felt. And still, Alec was talking.

"…didn't know, didn't think it through. When Parker suggested it, I thought it would be funny, but, man, I've only been awake for half an hour, my brain's still misfiring. Well, no, it was then. I'm wide awake now, but. You know." His frown deepened. "Eliot?"

 _It would've been easy to kill him. Hell, he might've made it over to Parker, too, before snapping out of it_.

\---

"Don't ever do that again," Eliot said suddenly, his voice dead serious, though most of his focus was on the corner of the room, staring at the pile of spent firecrackers like they might turn into _real_ guns. "Just. _Don't_."

"Loud and clear, man. I'm sorry."

Eliot nodded, letting out a breath as he closed his eyes. When they opened again, though, they landed immediately on Alec's.  It was mostly a relief. There was still something there that Alec didn't care to think about.

It still took Eliot a moment to speak, though, his eyes again darting down to Alec's neck for the briefest of instants. "Fuck, man. I could've." He frowned, waving a hand worriedly in his direction. He still sounded freaked. "Shit."

"You didn't," Alec decided, intent on taking just another step forward, but making it two when Eliot followed suit, closing the distance between him. His heart was still racing, Alec could feel it through his shirt when he crossed his arms around Eliot's shoulders.

"I'm good," Alec muttered against Eliot's mussed hair, figuring it was close enough to honesty. "Seriously, though. What about you?"

Eliot scoffed, first, but then shrugged, though he tried to hide the movement by bringing his hands up around Alec's back. "I'm fine." His voice was muffled against Alec's shoulder, though, and he held on a little tighter than usual. A little longer. Alec let him, because really? He didn't know what the hell else to do.

\---

Eliot pulled away before this started getting even more embarrassing, but Alec, it seemed, was just as eager to pretend this never happened. He was already smirking at the mess by the bed.

"So it looks like breakfast in bed is now breakfast on the floor. Should probably go get a towel, or something."

"I got it," Eliot said, managing one step before Alec caught at his elbow.

"You got _bare feet_ ," he pointed out, raising his eyebrows meaningfully at the broken glass strewn throughout the puddle, before shoving him towards the other side of the bed. "You get cleaned up. Nate and the others are probably ready to break the door down, we've got to get going. You hungry?"

Eliot shrugged, grabbing a change of clothes out of his duffel bag on his way to the bathroom. "Nah," he said, "I'll grab something later," because they were on a timeline, here. The fact that his stomach was still in knots had nothing to do with it.

\---

Eliot, Alec had already observed, reacted very sharply to threats. Right now, he was finding out that it took him a while, it really did, for him to come back down.

The party had gone off without a hitch, and Delgado had managed to make contact with seventeen more families willing to pay for the privilege of serving as mules, in return for a ride up into Lubbock that few of them would actually survive. The mics Parker had planted were catching names, contact information, everything, which would soon make their way to Maria Ruiz. With the funds from Delgado's hefty buy-in, she'd be able to get them the immigration assistance they actually needed. So everything had been going great, there.

At the end, though, Delgado had spooked. With the transport papers he'd needed in his hands, he'd thought he'd found a way to cut Nate and Sophie out of the deal.

Eliot, though, he'd gotten there first, and he'd gotten to work. Eventually, one by one, Delgado's associates fell to the ground, but they'd gotten their punches in. Eliot had fought hard, but he'd been tense, distracted all the while. And maybe a little bit angry, too, frustrated. It was hard to tell.

Sophie'd had to call him off. Twice, and neither attempt had worked until Nate and Alec both joined in. There'd been an awkward moment, there, where Nate had "dropped" the fake gun he carried, when it hadn't looked like Eliot had caught on, when it looked like he wouldn't remember to shoot Nate, but another moment, and both Sophie and Nate were lying, "dead," on the ground.

Delgado's men scattered, just like Nate had promised, and finally, they were very nearly done.

"Parker, you done?" Nate asked as they pulled up behind the police station.

"They're are tipped off about the piñatas and have the route, but someone called in the gunfight. We've got to go," Parker was saying, sliding into the van and glancing quizzically at Eliot, who was rubbing at shoulder with a slightly dazed look on his face. "What's with him?" she asked Sophie, and it was just as well. Alec didn't feel much like explaining, and he doubted Eliot did, either.

Alec fished the cooler out from behind the seat and pulled out an ice pack, handing it over. He had to press it into Eliot's arm before actually getting a response, and Alec _really_ wished he hadn't caught Nate's speculative glance in the rearview mirror just then.

Thankfully, though, when Nate spoke, it was just to confirm that they were going home.

\---

They arrived in El Paso late that afternoon, stopping to eat and return the rental van before heading to the airport, where they discovered that their flight was delayed by two hours.

It hadn't  left them much to do besides sitting around the terminal. Not too long after they'd claimed a block of seats, Parker had disappeared, coming back with an ice pack for Eliot that she offered up as some sort of peace offering, but that had been a while ago. She'd since wandered off, saying something about making sure the leftover piñatas were being loaded into the plane correctly, and nobody, really, had wanted to know exactly what that entailed. Nate had disappeared a while ago, muttering something about finding somewhere to charge his phone.

Eliot was now, more or less, just listening to the sound of Alec's typing, and watching Sophie start to doze off over her magazine. She was asleep by the time Alec actually spoke.

"Tell you what," he looked over, his fingers coming to rest on his keyboard. "When we get back, we'll go do something fun. Celebrate your birthday properly, whatever you want to do."

Alec's leg was pressed up against his own, and if Eliot was in serious danger of actually leaning against Alec's shoulder, it was just because these damned chairs were so uncomfortable, and he was freaking _exhausted_ , anyway.

He gave it some thought, for just a moment, but it wasn't really any contest. He closed his eyes and rolled his head back, trying to stretch out the annoying twinge in his shoulder. "Fishing."

"What, no, I'm not," Alec sputtered. "I'm just sayin'-"

" _No_ , man. We've been out here for _ten_ days Just want to kick back with a beer or three, sit on my ass, and throw a line in the water," Eliot explained, because even if Alec saw right through it, he'd probably play along, and _wouldn't_ start in with questions about what Eliot'd been thinking this morning, where he'd thought he'd been those first few minutes.

He'd never bring it up first, not in public, but if his glance in Sophie's direction was anything to go by, he was considering it.

"Sounds chill," he eventually conceded, diplomatic if not thrilled, but after the day Eliot'd had, he figured he could afford to be a little selfish.

He grinned to himself, well aware that Alec was probably watching. "Hey, you wanna go get me some coffee?"

Alec snorted, quietly. "What? Man, you nearly _strangled_ me this morning. I might actually have bruises, here. Don't push it."

"Wouldn't've had to if it wasn't for that stupid stunt you and Parker pulled." He brandished the now mostly melted ice pack that had molded itself to his knee. "Plus, I'm totally injured over here. _And_ , it's my birthday. And you totally spilled the coffee all over the place this morning."

Alec smirked, setting his computer aside as he stood. "Nah, man. That was all you."

"Whatever." Eliot resettled himself and closed his eyes. Just for a minute.

\---

When Alec returned, a soda in his right hand and a cup of coffee burning through his left, he found Eliot asleep.

On any other day, it wouldn't have been an issue, but…

Eliot's head had fallen forward onto his chest, and with the shoulder acting up already, he was going to be miserable with a stiff neck added to the mix. And the coffee, really, would do much better in someone else's hand.

He knelt on the floor, setting the cup aside- well out of striking distance- while checking to make sure Sophie was still asleep, because she'd probably find this just _adorable_. Taking Eliot's hand in a light grip, he squeezed, just a little.

"Eliot?" he tried, then again. "Hey, El. Wake up, time to go to school."

Eliot woke up a few seconds before his eyes opened, squinting against the light and landing on Alec's face. Wrapping his fingers around Alec's hand, he squeezed back, briefly, before his eyes fell closed again.

"Much better," Eliot mumbled, scowling and grinning at the same time. "Coffee?"


End file.
